Retailer Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose Comics & Games in Whippany, New Jersey sent us this comment on his feelings about the year since the 9-11 attacks.

Two other game companies have also reduced staff recently. Interactive Imagination has gone through a 'restructuring,' and, living up to its name, Cheapass Games has laid off its sales and marketing staff,...

Image Comics, including Top Cow and Todd McFarlane Productions, has signed with Diamond Book Distributors for distribution to the book, warehouse club, and mass merchant channels.

Brian Hibbs was prompted by Marvel's recent decision to accept returns on over 100 issues from the past to issue this statement on the topic. '..[T]his is a major step in the right direction.... Nonetheless, the action by Marvel hardly 'solves' the issues between retailers and Marvel.'

Wizards of the Coast has eliminated 60 employees as part of a company-wide reorganization. While t he layoffs are quite wide-spread (ranging from senior VPs to game designers with considerable experience including Jeff Grubb and J.D. Wiker), the number of positions eliminated represents only 6% of WOTC's approximately 1000 employees.

MGM has licensed three properties, Stargate SG-1 , Species , and Robocop to Avatar Press. The three properties involved started on the big screen, and then migrated to television before getting a chance at four-color immortality.

Gail Burt of Metropolis Comics in Downey, California liked what CrossGen founder Mark Alessi had to say in our recent interview and how he does business.

ICv2's DBZ Dollars Display 'contest is a great way to take advantage of this huge property and its large television audience, and to draw in new customers as well as maximize your sales to existing customers.

An ICv2 Release. ICv2, with the support of sponsors Score, Diamond Comic Distributors, and Viz Communications, is launching its DBZ Dollars promotion today, to draw attention to the money retailers can make by capitalizing on the current bestseller of the anime category.

In this first part of our two-part interview, we talk about the market for comics and graphic novels, what's happening in the bookstores, and how DC's toy business is changing with its new Mattel deal.